


Liar Liar Pants on Fire

by Bookmonkey



Series: Unintended Consequences [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akumatized Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gen, Salt, Temptation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 00:48:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20787827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookmonkey/pseuds/Bookmonkey
Summary: Lila started the fight.Marinette is determined not to lose.Desperate times makes twisted promises taste sweet.





	Liar Liar Pants on Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Writing_Bearifficly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writing_Bearifficly/gifts).

> Here you have it Writing_Bearifficly! For guessing correctly way back in chapter 53 of Float Like a Butterfly...Sting Like a Bee.

Marinette heard her alarm. She didn't need it really. She hadn't been asleep. She hadn't been able to sleep for a few days.

Marinette shut off her alarm, sighing. She climbed down her ladder and started to shove things in her bag for school.

“Marinette?” Tikki floated off her plush bed. It was a flower, and looked enough like the various pin cushions Marinette had not to look out of place. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine Tikki.” Marinette mumbled around a yawn. Tikki flew around Marinette's head. Marinette waved her Kwami away from her face. “I have school.” Marinette lifted her bag over her head, yawning. Her body shifted and Tikki flew over and nudged Marinette's shoulder to balance her out.

“Maybe you should take your mom up on her offer to stay home and sleep.” Tikki nudged Marinette's chin.

“No.” Marinette straightened up and shook her head. “I can't stay home.” Marinette clenched her fists. “Then she wins.” Marinette growled, before turning on her heel. Tikki sighed, and looked over at Marinette's desk, spotting a book for Literature class.

“Marinette!” Tikki grabbed the book and held it out.

“Thanks Tikki.” Marinette added the book to her bag. “Now lets go.” Tikki floated in front of her Chosen. She saw the dark circles, the extra pale skin, the eyes rimmed red from lack of sleep.

“I really think you should stay home and rest.” Tikki floated closer. Marinette shook her head, grabbing a few cookies she kept stashed in her room.

“I'll be fine.” Marinette scooped Tikki out of the air. “Who knows what Lila will say about me when I'm not around.” Marinette dropped the cookies and Tikki into her purse. Or at least, all but one cookie.

“But you're exhausted. What happens if an akuma attacks?”

Marinette laughed, grinning as she brought the cookie up to her mouth. “Well then the akuma better watch out, because today Ladybug is fueled by spite and chocolate chip cookies.” Marinette bit off half the cookie before closing the purse with Tikki inside.

Tikki frowned but stayed inside the purse as usual.

#

It hurt. Lila's lies. The way those lies had ripped Marinette's friends away from her. But Marinette tried not to show how much it hurt.

She smiled through the rip in her chest forming as her friends laughed with Lila. She blinked away tears when her name was whispered with a disapproving tone.

Marinette put up walls and shut her ears and eyes to everything around her.

Science class, Marinette was assigned to a back table, and through another ridiculous lie, something about carpel tunnel and being pyrophobic (though how did Lila then manage to roast marshmallows with the kids of the U.S. President if she was pyrophobic should have been enough to question it) Lila ended up being allowed to tag along a group of two, leaving Marinette alone.

Not that it was hard. Marinette would be able to do this on her own. In fact, it was probably better, since Marinette didn't want to work with or help people who suddenly thought so little of her. People who swallowed lies like they were spoonfuls of sugar.

Marinette's bag was a mess, so she dumped it on the lab table, since she didn't have to share the table with anyone. Papers fluttered out, one happened to be a photo, landing face down near the middle of the table, where the bunsen burner was waiting.

Marinette didn't notice it at first, digging through her stuff to find the prep she had already done for the science project. But Lila noticed it.

Lila grabbed the photo and looked at it.

“All you have left is the memories,” Lila leaned in close, smiling as she whispered in Marinette's ear. Marinette looked over, seeing the class photo in Lilah's hand, everyone smiling, everyone united in their goal. (Even if part of their united goal was against Chloe, but Chloe had brought that upon herself unlike Marinette.)

“Give that back.” Marinette reached out, but Lila pulled her hand back.

“Teacher, Marinette refused to show me how to light the bunsen burner!” Lila whined. Every eye in the class turned towards them, and Marinette swallowed.

“That's not...” Marinette sighed. It was a losing battle, to protest Lila and her lies. A battle Marinette was losing every day, a battle she was losing sleep over, a battle she didn't see how she could win. Both trying to fight Lila's lies and trying to ignore them got Marinette no sympathy anymore.

Except from Adrien though it's not like Marinette crashing to rock bottom helped her be able to talk to the boy. In fact, now she felt even more pathetic in Adrien's prescence.

So Marinette grit her teeth and grabbed the rubber hose. “I just needed a moment to remember,” Marinette did her best not to seethe, but speaking through a clenched jaw wasn't helping her. “I'm a bit scatterbrained you know.”

Marinette had no sleep. Ladybug had more fights in the past week than she had in the past month. She was running on fumes and despite her bravado for Tikki Marinette didn't know how much longer she could actually keep up before she snapped.

Marinette attached the hose to the bunsen burner and the gas line. She grabbed the metal striker and turned on the gas. A couple failed sparks and then the flame caught. A blue flame held strong as Marinette set down the metal striker. She looked at Lila and held out her hand.

She had played Lila's game and she hoped Lila would hand over the photo. It was useless to Lila, taken before she even transferred.

Marientte should have known better. Marientte shouldn't have gotten her hopes up. Lila flicked her wrist, tossing the photo not to Marientte but into the blue flame.

The corner burned red, the paper becoming ashen. Marinette reached out, clutching the photo and smothering the flames with a bit of scrap fabric which had also come from her bag. Her fingers were singed, the photo burnt and warped from the heat.

It was stupid.

She was stupid.

The photo itself wasn't anything important.

Marinette looked up. She glared at Lila. She couldn't say anything, because there was no way to prove Lila did it on purpose. No one else seemed to recognize the glint in her eyes or the satisfied smirk Lila gave her before she walked away.

Marinette didn't move. She pressed her fists into her lab table and ran her teeth over her lips. Marinette couldn't believe Lila had been able to go through with her threats. Marinette couldn't wrap her mind around how much Lila's lies hurt and how no one else could see through them. Marinette closed her eyes and fought against the tidal waves of emotions.

Maybe it would have been easier to leave the classroom. She could go to the bathroom, and Tikki would comfort her and then she would be able to calm down and focus.

But walking out of the room would be letting Lila win.

And Marientte was done with letting her win.

“_I'll give you the ability to prove Lila's lies to your former friends, and all you'll have to do is get the Miraculous.”_

_ Why not? Then I'll have the chance to find out who he is and stop Lila once and for all._

_“Deal Hawk_ _ Moth.”_

_ “Excellent. Sometimes, it is best to fight fire with fire.” _

Marinette was no stranger to magic wrapping around her, changing her, fueling her. But this felt different. Logically she knew it was wrong, but giving in to her emotions felt so right.

_“Liar Liar, pants on fire.”_

It had been a horrifying thought to Marinette as a child. For her clothes to burn the moment she spoke a lie. But to make Lila burn, well, that sounded insanly satisfying.

_ “Excellent idea Fire Lie. Show the world how destructive lies can really be.”_

Fire Lie opened her eyes, waving a hand over the bunsen burner, watching the flame turn white. She glared at Lila, and then asked a question in her sweetest voice.

“Are you scared of fire Lila?”

If it was a lie before, no one would question Lila after Fire Lie set Lila's pants on fire.

**Author's Note:**

> "I am fueled by spite and chocolate chip cookies." Just screamed to be a part of a salt fic. I hope you enjoyed this short of Mari succumbing to temptation.


End file.
